


The Science Of Love (The And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye Remix)

by Huntress79



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Minor Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, Scientist Steve Rogers, Spy Bucky Barnes, Spy Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23751292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: Summary: What looks like a “normal” assignment at first glance, pretty soon turns into a life-changer for Agent James “Bucky” Barnes.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33
Collections: Stucky Remix 2020





	The Science Of Love (The And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539405) by [digthewriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/digthewriter/pseuds/digthewriter). 



> Notes: Written for the Stucky Remix challenge and digthewriter. I chose the story “And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye”. Enjoy!!

*********************

Ever since he became an agent, Bucky has done quite a lot of things to get the job done and another case closed. His bosses will smile at him, eventually congratulate him for another successful job done, and that’s that.

Rinse and repeat.

Usually, Natasha, his partner for the past few years, takes him out for some drinks after work, and teases Bucky within an inch of his life if he did something she considers outrageous during the mission.

It’s okay, in most cases. Natasha’s kind of his second little sister, next to his biological one, and in terms of teasing and hazing him, they’re equals, Becca only has a couple of decades ahead of Nat. Besides, if the tables were turned, he would do just the same.

When Fury handed them the files about Strucker Labs and what they suspected was going on, Bucky didn’t really look at the employees list. Sure, he immediately started to learn the names of Warren Strucker, and Liam Mason Wyatt (and by proxy, his fiancée, Courtney, Warren’s daughter), but other than that - nada.

Little did he know back then that one name on that list would turn his whole life around.

Natasha did the first part of the job - get into the labs, and more important, build up some rapport with one of the employees. Bucky’s more backup than anything else now.

It all changes when Nat tells him about a party at Strucker’s estate out in the Hamptons. Which is also a place where both men might keep papers and other information, so Bucky goes digging.

He’s just returning to the office when his phone alerts him of a new message. As far as he knows, Nat is out with one of the employees.

_N - How do you fancy a party, Barnes?_

Bucky doesn’t have to do a lot of thinking - he loves parties, mostly for the free drinks and snacks. Besides, he knows what happens when he enters a room full of people in a well-cut tuxedo. If he and Nat are going to the party, nobody will pay attention to her anymore, which in turn gives her enough leeway to do why they are really there for and return just in time to pretend she just was touching up her make-up..

_B - Who’s whose arm candy this time?_

_N - You still know how to pull off a gay male escort?_

Oh.

Sure, it has been some time since Bucky had to dig that persona out, but it’s pretty much the easiest one of all his “characters”, so he should be good.

_B - Who am I escorting?_

_N - My place, in two hours._

*********************

Though the next morning, when he lays his eyes on Steven Grant Rogers for the first time, Bucky is ready to throttle Natasha, just a little bit. How could she keep such vital information to herself?

Because Steve is, long story short, every single wet dream Bucky ever had personified.

But, and that’s pretty much a big “but” in Bucky’s book, he’s also a spitfire with a mean temper, if their first meeting in Steve’s apartment is anything to count for.

Sure, Bucky can forgive the reaction to him hinting at being an escort (really, Nat, you could have told him that!), but still, that’s no excuse for questioning everything else that happened that day.

When they come back home in the evening from their day out, Bucky’s still surprised he managed to get the other man out of his apartment in the first place. Only after Bucky had explained it to Steve why they should be out and about and take pictures, Steve agreed to it.

Shopping with Steve was an experience of its own. Over the course of his career so far, Bucky went clothes shopping with quite a few people, but somehow, none of them was like Steve. For a man in this line of work, Steve definitely had better taste in fashion than any of the scientists Bucky had met before. Not that it was _that_ refined, but still above average, with enough room for improvements.

Apparently, Steve had his own tiff with Wyatt, mostly over the latter using Steve’s research to not only schmooze his way up the ladder, but also to get an award. Which was one of the reasons for the party, and if Bucky knew this kind of people well enough, not the only one.

Sleeping on Steve’s couch is an adventure of itself, not only for the nightmare Bucky apparently had during the night. Not wanting the other man to know anything about it, Bucky pulls up a front, and with only a little bit of fight, Steve backs down.

*********************

The drive out to the Hamptons is a quiet affair, and even without all the experience from his work, Bucky knows that the party is dominating Steve’s thoughts. And that was another crux to the assignment - a man like Steve, with a mind so brilliant at his disposal, shouldn’t have to dance to another man’s tune, so to speak. If it was up to Bucky alone, despite all the defensive measures both men had put up, Steve would have won any kind of academic award by now.

At long last, they arrive at the estate, and Bucky somehow already feels familiar with it, even though he only had seen some blueprints of the house. Deep down, he knows that he can pull off the job he had to do here without breaking a sweat, he only hopes that neither Steve nor any of the other guests would end up in tjhe more or less proverbial crossfire.

Courtney, the daughter of the house, gives them a quick greeting before handing them over to one of their security officers, who in turn leads them to the room they would share.

Once the man is gone, Steve lets out a huff, a frown marring his handsome features.

“Of course we get a room with only one bed, silly,” he mutters to himself, though Bucky has no problem to pick up every word. “They think you and Bucky are a couple.”

“Isn’t that why you hired me in the first place?” Bucky asks, once he has some of his belongings stashed in the bathroom. Steve can’t see it, but most of the things he brought along are left at the bottom of his backpack. In his line of work, you never know if or when you have to flee a location at the drop of a hat.

“As I told you, Nat hired you, not me,” Steve retorts, his voice still tinged with anger.

“You’re gonna repeat yourself for the rest of the weekend, huh?”

“If you keep asking the same questions over and over, I might have to.”

*********************

A little while later, they are mingling with the other guests. While Bucky doesn’t mind doing it, and keeps up the pretense of being Steve’s boyfriend with ease, he’s here for a job, and the sooner he can get it done, the sooner he might be able to enjoy what’s left of the party.

Steve, on the other hand, is still walking around with a frown on his face. Even if Bucky wouldn’t know him, he would immediately know that the other man wasn’t enjoying being here in the first place. And somehow, Bucky feels for him. Not only for getting denied any part of the accomplishment, but also for getting a virtual slap in the face by seeing Liam and Courtney together. Steve might have denied having any romantic feelings for Liam, but Bucky’s doing his job long enough to know better. Steve’s jealous at Liam, on every account.

With only half a white lie, Bucky gets away from the party and into one of the many, many hallways of the estate. Skye, their technical specialist, had handed him a special wristwatch, not unlike the ones he had seen in the James Bond movies. While it looked like a common watch from a famous brand, it had quite some custom-made features built in, one of them helping him finding his way in this maze made of brick.

Bucky almost makes it to Strucker’s study (in fact, he’s right in the doorway to the room), when he runs into none else than Courtney.

“James is it, right?” she asks, hesitation tinging her voice. “You would think a woman holding two PhDs to her own name would be better with names, but no, apparently not this one!” she quips with a thumb at herself, and despite being caught, Bucky can’t help but smile along with her. “What are you doing here? This is private, and you can thank Lady Luck that it was me who found you, not one of the security officers, or worse, my father!” She comes up to him, linking her arm with his right one. “Come, I’ll bring you back to your man. He’s probably worried sick already, wondering where his handsome partner went off to.”

“Would you believe me that I was just looking for the restroom?” Bucky tries, telling her exactly what he told Steve.

“Uhmm,” she stops and pretends to think about it, “well, I do, this time, and only because you’re too handsome for your own good.” For emphasis, Courtney gives him a wink before leading them towards the party.

Where they arrive just in time to diffuse a situation between Steve and Liam. Judging by the reenforced frown on Steve’s face, Bucky would win any bet that whatever Liam had said to him was either about their work or Steve’s love life. Either way a surefire way to get on the man’s bad side.

Courtney, by all means, could be a spy herself, for how easy white lies flow from her mouth. Bucky hasn’t told her anything about Steve at all, and yet, she charms Steve with all the things Bucky albeitly has said about his boyfriend.

Liam, on the other hand, doesn’t even try to hide his true feelings about Steve and, by proxy, Bucky. Though he shows momentarily surprise and astonishment when Bucky plants a kiss on Steve’s cheek, Bucky knows deep down that Liam despises Steve, just for existing. And for that alone, Bucky will make his life a living hell - hopefully.

Making a quick dash to the bar for some drinks for him and Steve, Bucky makes a decision that he won’t let get Steve drunk if he can help it. Something tells him that the man can’t hold his liquor, so to speak, and that’s not only for the way Steve acted yesterday morning, recovering from an apparent hangover. Besides, if anything goes sideways with Bucky’s “job”, he absolutely doesn’t want to deal with a sick Steve on top of everything else.

Steve, of course, notices that something is off about his drink, but for once, he keeps it to himself, just gives Bucky a look that he knows.

Nighttime, for the second time in a row, proves to be a rollercoaster. First, Bucky gets another of his damned nightmares. Steve manages to wake him up, and in the process to do so, he leans into Bucky with his whole body. Of course, Bucky’s own treacherous body takes a liking to it, and so, they end up lying together, with Bucky spooning Steve from behind. In hindsight, Bucky knows it’s probably the worst decision he could have make at this point.

Cause when the morning comes around, his body takes its betrayal a step further, and has him pressing up against Steve’s ass, his already hard cock getting more and more interested. And if that wasn’t bad already, one of his hands has wandered under Steve’s shirt and tweaks a nipple between two fingers.

Steve is out of the bed in a literal heartbeat, and while a part of Bucky understands the man’s reaction, the bigger part is disappointed and, admittedly, a bit hurt. Rejection always hurts, even if the whole thing is faked from the start.

Despite his best intentions, Bucky can’t get the incident out of his mind the whole day. They both participate in all the activities on their schedule, but unlike the day before, he tries to go out of Steve’s way. So much, that apparently Courtney caughts on, and in what she probably considers a stroke of genius, sends Steve his way.

Sure, they get to talk a bit, but about nothing substantial, apart from Steve’s fear that someone has recognized Bucky from using his services in the past, which in turn leads to Bucky confessing that he doesn’t sleep with women, at all.

Then one of the waiters appears, with drinks courtesy of Courtney, and Bucky gets almost whiplash from the sudden change in Steve’s behavior. Cause the second Vinny starts to flirt with Bucky, Steve gets possessive to the hilt, one of his hands landing on Bucky’s thigh and his whole demeanor, down to his voice and choice of words, showing everyone who Bucky belongs to.

Vinny backs off, knowing better than to get into a tiff with one of the guests, and the man is barely gone when Bucky tells Steve that he is “a confusing piece of shit”. He even ignores the scolding for using bad language around Steve, for once.

Of course, like so many things since the whole assignment had started, this goes sideways too, and long story short, they end up having a fight like a “true” couple, in which Bucky tells Steve how he really sees him - as a genius that should be leading, but instead lets everyone run him over, again and again.

Steve, true to his nature, doesn’t back down either, and so Bucky gets confronted with his nightmares, and particular his continued refusal to talk about them or what causes them. And while it angers him that Steve can get so easily under his skin like no one else, a treacherous little voice pipes up and tells him that the other man is right.

Steve gets his silence the wrong way and thinks that, since Bucky can’t charm him now, he tries to bully him instead. But before Steve can continue his tirade, Bucky snaps - and kisses him, pouring something from the real him into it that makes Steve going back for more.

Which is how the Struckers find them a little bit later. Pressed against a wall, making out like teenagers. Liam, of course, uses the situation to try and insult Steve even further, but before he can finish, Courtney is there, as well, and surprises everyone by defending Steve and Bucky against both her father and her fiancé.

*********************

Another night is falling over Bridgehampton, but this time, there’s not almost the whole bed distance between Bucky and Steve, only about a foot when they call it a night.

The kiss and make-out session is still there, like the proverbial elephant in the room, and yet, both men actively avoid to talk about it. Which does not necessarily make both their lives any easier. But instead of finally stop beating around the bush and use actual words, like the adults they should be, given their age, they have sex instead.

Of course, it’s all kinds of wonderful, even when it’s more a chain of guesstimates in the dark than anything else. But everything goes where it should go, and yet, while catching his breath after one of the best orgasms in his whole life, Bucky can’t help but think that their whole situation just has got even more complicated than it already was.

Still, the pros weigh out currently the cons in his head, and truth be told, he’s never been a size queen before, but Steve’s cock is all it takes to turn him into one. That, or that wicked mouth of his, in more than one meaning. Bucky has received quite some good blow jobs before, but Steve going down on him was only one step away from a transcendent experience - so good, so unique.

Before they both fall asleep, Bucky tells Steve that there are things he has to tell him, but that they can wait until the morning.

*********************

Which, of course, comes back to bite Bucky in the rear, in the almost literal sense of the word, and causes everything to come crashing down.

Natasha calls while he’s in the shower, and in no time, they have to flee their room, dressed only enough to be decent, and accompanied by explosions somewhere else in the estate. Bucky leads Steve through the maze of hallways into a tunnel - where they run into Courtney, who got told to hide in there by her father.

Despite the imminent danger, Steve puts his foot down when Bucky suggests they leave Courtney behind, but only when they hear Liam scream for them, Bucky relents and lets the frightened woman tag along.

Long story short, they make their exit through the study window just in the nick of time, right before the room implodes, making a dash to the helicopter with bullets whizzing around them.

Once they are all secured and out of danger, Nat takes over. She hands first Courtney, then Steve a bottle of water, which is only nice in the beginning. In no time, both Steve and Courtney are sleeping, and Bucky is left to curse his colleague.

They get back to the city, leave everything in the Hamptons for the rest of their team to clean up. Courtney is taken into protective custody, and once she wakes up, tells them everything she knows about the bad things both her dad and her (now ex-)fiancé have been up to.

Not that Bucky gets to know that all firsthand. No, Natasha has to tell him about in a phone call, cause he opts to stay with Steve at the other man’s apartment when the sedative doesn’t seem to wear off as fast as it did with Courtney. Sure, given Steve’s already existing health problems, they all are gonna be lucky if he ever wakes up again.

Which he finally does, almost 24 hours later. And while Bucky thanks every deity on this planet for this small miracle, he also knows that they are back to square one, so to speak.

He gets it, on some level. Steve has every right to NOT trust either of them, and Bucky honestly can’t imagine what he would do were the tables turned. And isn’t it some kind of weird irony that it was him, who lied to Steve from the get-go, who also told the same man that he let each and everyone run him over, again and again?

Steve, once his brain is completely online, is pissed, and not even the fact that Bucky chose him over his job, chose to stay with him to make sure he’s okay, can quiet that roar inside of him. He just hates being lied to, period.

After a few halfway attempts of a talk and Steve fleeing to the bathroom, they finally get around to sit down and restart the talking part, but of course, they mess it up again, mostly by going head over heels into it and ending up on their respective (proverbial) asses.

Natasha joining them doesn’t help either, but at least Steve gets some info about the job they were doing. It’s just the cliff notes, after all, but Bucky’s sure not even a full disclosure (if they could even do that) would get them both back into Steve’s good graces. Not now, and probably not ever again.

At long last, they both have to go, and for the first time in his life, Bucky is really torn. He doesn’t know if Steve ever can trust him again, or if they ever get a second chance, but he would curse himself for the rest of his life if he doesn’t at least give it a try.

And so, Bucky resolves to quit his job, if that means he can try and win Steve’s heart back.

*********************

In the weeks following, Bucky keeps his distance, and doesn’t even try to contact Steve, except for one, rather desperate SMS, stating “I miss you”.

Until one day, he can’t take it anymore, and he goes to Steve’s place. Only to end up waiting for the man in question to come home from wherever he is close to midday.

Waiting on something (or someone) isn’t exactly Bucky’s forte, never has been, and so he falls back to one of his old and bad habits - he starts smoking and is on his second cigarette, when finally Steve appears in the hallway.

For a hot moment or two, they just stare at each other, before Steve scolds him for smoking, and Bucky scrambles not only to his feet, but also to an apology, at least for the cigarette.

Short of a true miracle, Bucky manages to get Steve to listen to him, even though the other man is still apparently hurting over what he and Nat did to him. And so, Bucky tells him foremost that he only wants one thing - earning Steve’s trust back.

Bucky continues to tell him about his new apartment, only two blocks away from Steve’s place, large enough to house a little family. But, as Bucky adds, he has gotten it just for him and, hopefully, for Steve as well, as kind of a place to restart whatever was beginning between them.

Ever so slowly, Bucky can see the doubts, the hurt chipping away from Steve, and he’s absolutely not surprised at all that they end up having sex - after realizing that Natasha has brought them together again, this time with the help of her boyfriend Bruce Banner, who hired both men to work for him, Steve as Head Scientist, Bucky as Chief of Security.

Afterwards, when they’re lying together and catching their breaths, Bucky repeats what he told Steve before, that he’s gonna “date the fuck out of him”, that he’s willing to pull out all stops if that means he gets back into the other man’s good graces for good. And to his surprise, Steve is okay with it all, even when Bucky suggests that he has to call or text Natasha, better sooner than later.

*********************

The End

*********************


End file.
